This is the first of two last posts on our trip, and jotting down my notes for how each equipment item that came for the trip fared. I’m comparing this trip to the one in Chubu-Kanto Japan last December and not the more recent family trip to Cebu in June this year: this is because the the South Korea trip has more in similarity to our vacations in Japan for several years now in length, type of places we visited, and also weather. Specifically, I took a large number of Drone videos in Cebu, which is why the storage used unusually large.
The dedicated imaging devices on this trip were:
Sony A6600 with the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 DC DN lens. The Sony 18-135mm kit lens stayed home this year.
Sony RX100 VII in the second major outing
DJI Action Nano in its first outing.
In addition, we had three smartphones between us: the missus and my Samsungs S24 Ultra, and the daughter’s S21 Ultra. And there was also the Samsung Tab S9 which was my mobile blogging tool. Yep, we’re still a Samsung family through and through! Photo and video numbers-wise, here’s the tally post-trip:
Sony RX100 VII: 389.ARW RAW format (keeping 221/ 0.5GB pictures)
Sony A6600: 19 .ARW RAW format (keeping 16/0.4GB pictures)
Samsung S25 Ultra (Yang): 3,968/15.3GB photos in JPG (keeping 2,523/12.5GB pictures) + 140/18.3GB videos (keeping 135/17.9GB videos)
Samsung S24 Ultra (Ling): 1,352 photos in JPG (4.83GB) + 148/15.3GB videos
Samsung S21 Ultra (H) + Canon G7X II: 855 photos in JPG (5.70GB) + 12/0.8GB videos
Xiaomi Poco X4 Pro 5G (P): 262 photos in JPG (0.9GB) + 28/1GB videos
When put into a table of comparison of photos taken using cameras and smartphones over our family trips since 2017:
| Trip | Photos taken | Videos taken | Storage used | Photos kept | Keeper rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Australia (2017) | 5,828 | No records | 77GB | 3,331 | 57.2% |
| Taiwan (2018) | 7,422 | 182 | 148GB | 4,200 | 56.5% |
| Maldives (2019) | 2,320 | 137 | 82.4GB | 1,518 | 65.4% |
| Chūgoku & Kyushu (2019) | 4,951 | 149 | 144GB | 3,283 | 66.3% |
| Kanagawa & Hokkaido (2019) | 7,652 | 216 | 309GB | 5,076 | 66.3% |
| Kansai (2022) | 7,683 | 429 | 196.2GB | 5,539 | 72.9% |
| Hanoi (2023) | 3,137 | 87 | 46.2GB | 2,090 | 66.6% |
| Chubu-Kanto (2023) | 11,663 | 372 | 146.93GB | 8,042 | 68.9% |
| Cebu (2024) | 2,649 | 276 (including drones) | 192.5GB | 2,319 | 87.5% |
| Busan-Suncheon-Seoul (2024) | 9,964 | 354 | 106GB | 6,805 | 68.3% |
| Yunnan-Western Sichuan (2025) | 7,348 est | 338 + 101 drones | 76GB + 201GB drone | 5,229 | 71.1% |
The number of pictures we took this trip on my end was a lot fewer, and for several reasons: firstly, we finally visited fewer places this trip than compared to last years’ Chubu-Kanto and also South Korea trip as we spent a lot of time on the road, and as interesting as vast landscapes are, there are only so few unique and interesting perspective. Secondly, a number of places in our first 14 days I spent all of my visiting time flying drones and taking aerial videos and few pictures. Lastly, our visit to Jiuzhaigou National Valley was a little disappointing, weather-wise: the cloudy and winter weather both combined to make for a sort of drab visual perspective of the area – i.e. we ended up taking fairly few pictures.
Again: my use of the Sony A6600 this trip was extremely limited in what looks like a repeating trend now. Sigh. Still, I’m going to continue hanging onto it in the hopes that in the right time and place, the Sony APS-C camera will really get to come out and show its chops. The DJI Nano Action also didn’t see much use, super diminutive and compact it is. I couldn’t quite figure out the correct placement of the camera on my jacket, and several times ended up taking videos that were not level horizontally, or were pointing either too far up or down.
Finally, my takeaways for the next trip, and assuming we’re going to another cold weather country in Dec 2026:
Bring the Sony A6600 and the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 to use as general purpose lenses, and my last attempt to see if it’s time for me to give up on ILCs.
Bring the DJI Nano Action but learn how to better position it.
Continue bringing the Sony RX100 VII because it’s super-portable.
Next post on final notes of this trip!